Posted on 11/16/2001 1:08:07 PM PST by Dog Gone
American-Statesman Staff
Wednesday, November 14, 2001
To view the map, go to www.tlc.state.tx.us/tlc/research/redist/redist.htm. The new plan is 1151C.
Federal judges Wednesday issued a new congressional map for the 2002 elections that puts new districts in Central Texas and Dallas County while pitting no two incumbents against one another.
The judges denied claims by Latino activists for seven — instead of the current six — congressional districts with Hispanic majorities along the Mexico border. They failed to create the first Hispanic-majority district in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and rejected arguments for another African-American district in Houston.
The judges' plan, adopted unanimously, appeared to try to make as few changes as possible while adding the two new districts. During the trial, the judges expressed concerns about making political policy — as opposed to legal decisions — normally reserved for the Legislature. The legislators failed to agree on a congressional map, kicking it to the courts.
The judges' plan appeared to give an edge to Republicans in the two new districts. Texas currently has 13 Republican and 17 Democratic incumbents, but it is getting two additional seats in Congress because it grew faster than most other states.
The new map, according to political experts, is almost an even split along major party lines and could result in a delegation made up of 17 Democrats and 15 Republicans — or 16 from each party.
In Central Texas, under the new plan:
• U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett will represent the eastern half of Travis County. Western Travis County, as well as western Hays, becomes part of a Hill Country district now represented by Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio.
• Williamson County is split in half. Southern Williamson will make up District 31, one of the state's two new districts. That district includes Bastrop County north of the Colorado River and stretches east to Bryan/College Station and south to Huntsville, taking in some of the Houston suburbs. More than 200,000 Williamson County residents are included in this district and are the largest population block in the district, suggesting that any new member of Congress could hail from Williamson County.
The northwestern portion of Williamson County will now be part of District 11, represented by Chet Edwards, D-Waco.
• The eastern portion of Hays County, all of Caldwell and Bastrop counties south of the Colorado River are in District 14, now represented by Ron Paul, R-Surfside.
After each census, the Legislature is required to equalize the population between the congressional districts. This year, however, the Legislature deadlocked without a map and Gov. Rick Perry refused to call legislators into a special session to try again. The Texas Supreme Court then ruled invalid a plan drawn by State District Judge Paul Davis of Travis County after a two-week trial.
That left the political future of the state's congressional delegation in the hands of three federal judges: Patrick Higginbotham, a Dallas Republican and judge on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and US. District Judges John Hannah Jr. and John Ward, both Democrats from Tyler.
The decision could have national consequences. Republicans hoped to use gains in Texas to offset Democratic domination in other states such as California. The partisan division of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2003 also could determine which Texan, U.S. Rep. Martin Frost, D-Dallas, or the Republican Delay, has a leadership post in Congress.
Although the judges' decision may be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, the map is likely to survive long enough for the 2002 elections. It could be considered too disruptive if the higher court ordered changes in the middle of the election.
While the stakes of redistricting are partisan, the battle often was fought in the legal guise of protecting minority voting rights.
The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) brought the suit in federal court.
Its lawyers argued that Hispanics accounted for 60 percent of the state's dramatic population growth in the 1990s and was entitled to two additional districts with Latino voting-age majorities.
"Texas got its two new districts because of that growth," said MALDEF lawyer Nina Perales.
But others, including Democrats and Republicans, disagreed.
U.S. Rep. Charles Gonzalez, D-San Antonio, testified that creating a new Hispanic district along the Mexico border could endanger the Hispanic majorities in other border districts.
In the Dallas area, the issue was if Hispanics were too dispersed to be drawn into one political district. In Houston, the Texas Coalition of Black Democrats argued for another district that might elect an African American and the state, through GOP Attorney General John Cornyn, accepted the Houston-area map with that district.
Despite predictions how the map will affect the partisan and ethnic make-up of the congressional delegation, voters often defy the redistricting experts' best guesses. Ten years ago, a Houston district was created that many said would elect a Hispanic to Congress. Instead, former state Sen. Gene Green defeated a Hispanic council member by less than 200 voters and has been re-elected comfortably since.
Unless a map matches incumbents against one another, GOP analysis Royal Masset has warned partisans from anticipating a dramatic change in the delegation. He noted several Democratic members have been elected from Republican-leaning districts for years.
At the polls, Masset says, "Incumbency is worth at least 10 percent points."
Overall, this is a good plan for the GOP. There is no need to get greedy. As another posted noted, a lot of fairly marginal GOP seats have been firmed up and are no longer marginal, as well as the Paul and Bonilla seats by a percentage point or so.
Thanks for description. Galveston now officially off my "places to retire" list. What's left? Mumble, mutter, grumble.
Huh? So I guess the Jeffords switch didn't make much of a difference? I guess the Tennessee Titans are pretty smart, they didn't get greedy in the Superbowl or on Monday night.
Sometimes inches make all the difference in the world.
I live in northern Galveston County, in a GOP enclave (Friendswood). I concur that the city of Galveston would not be a nice place to live. High crime, too many liberals and a generally trashy looking area makes for bad place to be. There are some nice areas around Corpus Christi, Rockport and near South Padre Island.
The Judges said as much in their opinion and alluded to the plan providing a split likened to previous party line votes, thus a majority to democrats. I'm not familiar with the districts to know which may become swing districts if the GOP gets a good candidate. I'm in the 9th and it's locked down solid for the dems along with the Ken Turner district just to our north.
It appears the GOP will pick up the two newly created districts and hopefully have a chance at others in a few years. I doubt this will be reversed on appeal, imo.
Also, CD4 held by Ralph Hall running from Sherman to Tyler and Longview, which will easily go GOP if Hall ever retires.
I doubt it, too. I like having Tom DeLay as my Representative and that certainly isn't going to change under this plan. But my vote is essentially wasted here because the district doesn't contain any Democrats to speak of. DeLay doesn't have to spend a dime campaigning because he's going to win by a 40% margin every time.
It's even worse in John Culberson's district representing the western affluent neighborhoods of Houston. The last political battle of his life was winning the Republican primary to replace Bill Archer. Now that he's done that, he has a lifetime job if he wants it because the district is carefully gerrymandered to scoop in the GOP precincts.
The reality is that Harris County (which is essentially greater Houston) is a GOP county. Democrat judges often don't even bother running for election, because they don't stand a chance of being elected. Yet, three of the four current congressmen representing parts of Houston are Democrats in safe Democrat seats.
That's what I'm complaining about.
Elections result from 2000 for Edwards (Incumb.) district 107,636 55 % vs
Farley 86,478 45
They conveniently forgot to add that most of these hispanics are probably illegal
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